The HAF programme is at the core of what we do. Funded by the Department for Education, The Hubb Foundation partners with Stoke-on-Trent City council to deliver a free-of-charge school holiday session scheme that provides activity, enrichment and food for vulnerable children and families in safe and welcoming school and community venues across the city. Covering the Easter, Summer and Christmas school holiday periods, this initiative provides over 40,000 places in Stoke-on-Trent, working closely with schools, community groups, providers and businesses to give children memorable experiences.
The Hubb Foundation has been recognised for its outstanding performance in coordination and delivery of the programme from the Department for Education, and is a member of the HAF National Steering Group and participant in researching the impact of this type of initiative in bringing positive change to the lives of vulnerable children.
The Hubb Foundation continues to need and raise funds to support the periods, such as half-term holidays, not covered by DfE funding.
The charity is looking for vital funding to sponsor a PhD student who we are working in partnership with from Staffordshire University to help understand the potential benefits of holiday interventions providing food for disadvantaged families. Working alongside the charity and support of supervisors (with expertise in Public Health and Education), this is a 3-year research project. A scoping review of relevant literature around HAF and similar models around feeding children from low-income and deprived backgrounds outside of school hours has already taken place. As a result, the aim is to now gather data to understand to what extent these interventions have a positive impact on children’s school attendance and attainment rate. Interviews with teachers, parents, and children will also be conducted to help understand their experiences and perceptions of The Hubb Foundation. This will be a published study with an opportunity for exposure for your business and logo.
Moving from primary to secondary school is a huge step for all children and families. During this transition the primary children need the best opportunity to settle into their secondary education environment. We work extensively with individual schools and Multi-Academy Trusts (MATs) to deliver programmes which are specifically tailored to give the primary children the opportunity to be present at the new prospective high school in the Easter and Summer holiday periods. This encourages children to make new friends and feel comfortable in their new environment months before they begin their high school journey. Schools will often operate as community hubs to enable all the family to access the venues and provision to help them prepare for this huge change for their children.
Our slow cooker projects have been running consecutively since the end of the Covid-19 pandemic after providing entire families with weekly food parcels. The programme provides slow cookers, recipe books and fresh ingredients to disadvantaged families through schools and community venue partners within Stoke-on-Trent.
In addition to our holiday projects, we support community venues in making their organisations both compliant and sustainable. Through free training sessions to bid writing support, we look to upskill community based organisations to support them in supporting disadvantaged families in Stoke-on-Trent.
Through our school partners, we were able to support families with weekly food and hygiene products, delivered to the door by a team of volunteers. Throughout the 26 week period we continued this, delivering a total of 600,000 meals with the help of JCB, Summit Hospitality, Port Vale Football Club and local catering suppliers who worked with us to make this possible. This was a testament to collaborative working and our resilience against the pandemic.
A independent and socially-inclusive charity dedicated to supporting families and communities in creating happy, healthy school holidays.
*Stats Source: Stoke-on-Trent City Council
Hamil Road
Stoke-On-Trent
ST6 1AJ